Publications

This concept note provides an overview of malnutrition, including its definition, causes, and management related to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It also describes the state of global malnutrition, including national and international efforts to reduce malnutrition and the stakeholders involved.

This case demonstrates what it takes to address a chronic, intergenerational public health issue. It explores the drivers behind the reduction of malnutrition in Maharashtra State, India, from 2001–2013. Specifically, the case examines the strategies and management decisions of leaders of the government-established Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health and Nutrition Mission as they worked to reduce the incidence of malnutrition in children and women through a multi-sectoral collaborative approach.

Learning Objectives: A productive class discussion will allow students to appreciate how to configure specific interventions and indicators to ameliorate and measure malnutrition for a local setting; the complexity and importance of crafting policies and generating political will across sectors in support of nutrition programs; and the role of a strong community workforce in enabling nutrition programs to reach the target population.

Set in Neno District, Malawi from 2007–2012, the case focuses on the economic impact of investing in health care infrastructure. It examines management decisions that leaders of Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo (APZU) and its founding organization—Partners In Health (PIH)—made as they supported the Government of Malawi in building a hospital and scaling up the delivery of APZU clinical and social programs across Neno district. The case highlights how a non-governmental organization can navigate the politics and local culture to improve Malawi’s health care system in close partnership with a strong, protocol-driven government. The case begins with Ophelia Dahl, co-founder and executive director of Partners In Health, reflecting on her December 2011 trip to Neno, nearly four years after her first visit. She observed signs of progress unrelated to health—bank branches had opened in town, a new road had been built, and the market had expanded dramatically. Ultimately, the case explores what this demonstrates about the value of her organization’s investments in health.

In the foreground: One-story original structures of Neno Rural Hospital used for outpatient and maternity services. In back: Two-story building constructed by APZU and partners used for inpatient wards, meetings, computer use, laboratory work, and government offices. Source: Keri Wachter, 2012.

Learning Objectives: To understand the challenges of hiring and retaining local and expat staff, the complexity of an international NGO partnering with the government to improve health care, how leadership acumen and approaches impact scaling up and sustaining health care delivery, the relationship between the district hospital and the local economy, and how to assess impact beyond health measures.

This case traces the development of the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign in Nyanza Province, Kenya as it transformed from the subject of a randomized clinical trial into national policy. After providing some background on the cultural, political, and scientific context surrounding male circumcision, the case traces the PEPFAR-funded implementers' advances in delivering male circumcision in Nyanza. It examines the various delivery models used in Nyanza and the evolution of the relationship between implementers as well as on the development of the national strategic plan for VMMC released in 2009. The case ends with the implementers having come together successfully for two rapid, aggressive, 30-day implementation campaigns and the head of Kenya's National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme wrestling with how to make such campaigns sustainable and what lessons from the campaign to pass on to the national program.

Learning Objectives: To understand how a randomized controlled trial may be translated into a large-scale public health program; how a surgical campaign was designed and implemented for rapid impact; the role of national and international collaboration in large-scale health delivery; and the ethical tradeoffs that arise in large-scale public health programs.

HIV and AIDS Projections, 1985-2020. Source: Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Health (projections based on data up to 2003). (Exhibit 6 from the "HIV in Thailand: The 100% Condom Program" case.)

Learning Objectives: To examine the national spread of a regional disease prevention program and evaluate its impact.

This case documents Indonesia’s progress in developing a coordinated national HIV/AIDS response. Within the context of a new democratic government, a weak civil society sector, a newly decentralized and underfunded public health system, and a religiously conservative environment, the case describes how international donors financed and directed HIV/AIDS-related efforts for the first 15 years of the epidemic. In 2006 the National AIDS Commission (NAC) was restructured and awarded funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). The case documents how DFID’s flexible financing enabled the NAC to develop a single national strategy, a national monitoring and evaluation framework, and a system of local AIDS commissions. The case ends in 2009 with the NAC preparing to assume a new role as one of three Principal Recipients of the Global Fund to Fight, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The NAC leadership must contemplate how to sustain and further the progress made in scaling up HIV prevention services while taking on new responsibilities as a Global Fund Principal Recipient.

Learning Objectives: To understand the impact of external financing, donor-driven agendas, and a national champion in creating a multisectoral response to HIV in a religiously conservative, lower middle-income country.

Thailand’s 100% Condom Program, which was implemented nationwide in 1991, is widely credited with averting a generalized HIV epidemic in that nation. This case traces the development and implementation of Thailand’s 100% Condom Program including its conception, the development of a pilot program in one province, and the program’s early regional expansion. It frames these events within the country’s general political, economic, and health situation; the epidemiology and public perception of HIV/AIDS; the government’s early HIV policy; and the economics of the commercial sex industry. The case explores how public health interventions are designed, refined, and spread. The case ends in early 1991 with the program’s founder trying to find ways to spread the successful regional program nationwide.

Sex establishments in Patpong Area, including go-go bars and members clubs. Source: "HIV in Thailand: The 100% Condom Program" case.

Learning Objectives: To understand the principles behind the design of disease prevention programs and to examine how successful programs align incentives among various stakeholders to achieve their objectives.

This case reviews the policy changes in tobacco control in post-apartheid South Africa from 1994 to 1996 under the leadership of Minister of Health Dr. Nkosazana Zuma. After providing contextual information on South Africa, including historical, demographic, social, and health information, the case delves into the history of tobacco and of global tobacco control efforts. The case then details the history of tobacco in South Africa, including data collection, epidemiology, early control efforts, and the policy efforts of the mid-1990s. The case describes the African National Congress (ANC)’s policy victories under Zuma’s leadership. Knowing that tobacco disproportionately affected certain racial and minority groups, Zuma made tobacco control a top priority. With the support of the President, local tobacco experts, and anti-tobacco advocates, Zuma worked hard to break previous connections between the government and the tobacco industry and to reduce smoking. The case ends in 1996 when smoking prevalence had declined to 32% from 34% in 1995, but South Africa still had one of the highest levels in the developing world. As the ANC was preparing to enact the new Constitution that reinforced health promotion, Zuma had to determine what her next move would be for tobacco control and how she would prioritize it with the other health needs of the country.

Learning Objectives: To understand the political and economic forces that impact tobacco control legislation in a country undergoing an epidemiological shift, the role of research and data, and the value of health communication, chronic disease prevention, and advocacy in health care delivery.

This case is a supplement to Tobacco Control in South Africa, which reviews the policy changes in tobacco control in post-apartheid South Africa from 1994 to 1996 under the leadership of Minister of Health Dr. Nkosazana Zuma. This case explains what happened after 1996, the steps Zuma took to continue her fight against tobacco (including expanding research capacity, getting increases in excise taxes passed, and pushing national legislation through) and what happened after her departure in 1999.

Relationship between Excise Tax Rate and Cigarette Consumption in South Africa. Source: van Walbeek C, WHO. Tobacco Excise Taxation in South Africa. (Exhibit 2 in "Tobacco Control in South Africa: Next Steps" case.)

Learning Objectives: To understand the political and economic forces and the role of research and data in implementing tobacco control legislation in a country undergoing an epidemiological shift, and the value of health communication, chronic disease prevention, and advocacy in health care delivery.

This case examines the work of the Measles Initiative (MI), a consortium of multiple international organizations, in helping catalyze a global effort to reduce worldwide measles-related mortality by expanding delivery of measles vaccinations. After providing background information on the biology of the measles virus and the epidemiology of measles, it recounts the formation of the MI, its partnership structure, its goals, its program design, and its financing. The case focuses on how multilateral global health initiatives coordinate with national governments to improve health care delivery. By 2009, the MI had made significant gains in reducing measles mortality, but was facing decreased funding and was questioning its strategy going forward.

Learning Objectives: To understand how multi-lateral, international disease-control initiatives are designed, coordinated, and financed and to examine how these initiatives interact with national health systems to achieve their objectives.